One big upside of the back-to-back snowstorms was their impact on crime.

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With the weather so nasty, police have needed no other help.

As the storms gripped the city, crime plummeted. Comparing last week to the same week in 2009, the most serious crimes were down 71 percent, according to city statistics.

The fatal shooting early Tuesday morning of a man in the Park Heights neighborhood ended a nine-day stretch in Baltimore that was free of killing. That stretch put the yearly homicide total at 18 -- significantly less than the 32 homicides recorded year-to-date in 2009.

Statistics showed arrests also took a snowstorm hiatus. There were only 23 arrests in the city last week -- 79 percent fewer than the 109 arrests logged in the city for the same week in 2009.

Prosecutors said the numbers all lend credibility to an academic theory about how to succeed in crime reduction.

"If we can keep the offender indoors, it tends to reduce crime. At one time, there was a strategy that involved trying to get offenders pushed indoors so if there was a crime scene, you have a better opportunity to interview witnesses, preserve evidence and build a better case," said Margaret Burns of the city state's attorney's office.